We Started the year on beach mission, our second at Shellharbour. Mike and Pip were part of the couchies section which spends the week reading the bible, having yummy breakfasts and doing activities with those ages between 16-20. We had between 7 and 9 people each day and got to take them through the new two ways to live bible studies called " you, me and the bible". As we went through the studies we had the couchies write the two ways to live pictures on a piece of cardboard and write a bible verse for each session on the back. It was cool seeing a guy named Jo who has a mental handicap remember all of the pictures by the end of beach mission, even though he can't read and struggles remembering things. He even prayed the prayer with us a the end of the book to become a Christian- Praise God! Now the follow up begins, we are trying to get three guys and three girls plugged into churches. Mike took a guy named Dillon to a church near his bourse in Bargo a few Sundays ago Sunday. It was such an answer to pray to see Dillon sitting in Church for the first time and being welcomed by the 40 or so young people who seemed to be quite involved in a vibrant Church community. The senior minister came out to meet his mum Kim when she came to pick Dylan up and invited her to Church also! Please pray that they would both start attending church regularly and that come to Christ!
Mike got to go to St Martins Killara and give his testimony during the Churh service. Mike first came to church because a woman who came into his work told him about Jesus and invited him to church to hear more about him. Though mike has never seen her again, he wanted to go back to we church and share his testimony to encourage the saints of the power of the gospel and the need to keep proclaiming it to all fearlessly, something Mike thinks people in the North Shore need to hear as much as anyone.
We recently moved into our new place in Erskinville. It has been stressful but God has been kind in providing at least 10 friends and family to help. We got to meet our neighbours either side. On one side is a man named Kim who has been struggling with a drug problem and is receiving subsidised rent as incentitive to keep clean. On the other side is a husband named brenden and a wife name Kate and their kids. They have asked us over for a meal wej we settle in which we hope to take them up on to start building relationships with our neighbours.
Mike has been catching up with his friend Adian Foxcroft, the youth minister at Natemburn Cammeray Anglican, as they work on doing a Catechism together aimed at helping Christians know what they believe and why they believe it. Mike is very passionate about it and hopes their time working on it will be fruitful.
We have started at our new Church St Andrews Strathfield. We ahave loved getting to know the Saints there, particularly of the university congregation called Kbf ( Korean Bible Fellowship) which began at NSW Uni under the ministry if Philip Jensen. We have loved staff training which has been on every Sunday after the Uni church. Last night Pip has a night of food, encouragement and prayer with the ministry wives. We feel very well supported!
Pip has started up her first subjects of the diploma of Bible and missions at Moore Theological College - New Testament and and Christian apolagetics. Please pray that she would be able to handle the academic side of college as she is a bit anxious about it, and also that she would be able to serve the college community well on Tuesdays as she spends the day studying and getting to know women at college better.
Mike, who is on the Orientation Commiittee, was able to welcome the first years at the big day in and during their Greek intensives. We also loved going to the Prascilla and Aquilla conference at Moore College at the start of the year with our friend Katie Barratt. Thankful we get to sit under such helpful teaching on 1 Corinthians 11-14 on how to do complementarian ministry well as men and women as God has designed us to be - mike was reminded that the re-established order of the roles of men and women in marriage and in church is the best relational expression of the glory of God and when we fail to do this we bring shame upon ourselves. Pray pip and I can reflect this in our marriage at at church.
Mike has also been running the walk up team at college with a friend Tim Flint. He ran a training session to which he invited represtatives from UTS, Sydney uni and St Stephens Newtown so that we can partner well with them. So far there has been amazing excitement and involvement in doing walk up in those places. Pip and Mike took our neighbour out for a coffee on Tuesday. He was homeless for like 28 years and is now on a pension and on a program where someone else pays most of his rent for him if he stays clean.... He was reluctant to come out but when he did he really opened up. He had some people throw him off a train when he was 30 and he cracked his skull open. He said he survived because someone was looking over him. I got to tell him that I Pip and i viewed ourselves as needy sinners like him and that I believe God is Sovereign over all people and that he has preserved his life till this day and everyone elses lives for the purpose of hearing the gospel so that many might come into a relationship with him through his Son Jesus Christ. Mike asked people at college to pray for him that he would get to know the gospel better and get connected to a local church. A few days later two people from college doing walk begain to answer Mikes prayers as they pumped into him and shared the gospel with him! How amazing is that. Please pray that he would be convicted of the truth of the gospel and would get involved in the local church.
Mike has also been running training at church for walk up. After running evangelism training for the last three weeks, 14 of us went out from our church, St Andrews Strathfield, to do door knocking and walk up today. A girl and a guy (who had never done walk up before) from church had a chat for an hour or so with a guy called Yougin who they invited to church. HE CAME!!!!! It was his first time at church and his first time hearing the gospel!!! He was warmly welcomed and came out after church with us for dinner and kept the night alive by going to another place for dessert! I got to have a good chat with him over dinner about the gospel after which he was able to articulate that "we don't get to heaven through doing good works but through a relationship with Jesus." Next week were watching a movie with him and having lunch after which he said he would like to come back to church! Praise God for the boldness of the guys here at St Andrews and for the power of the gospel. Please pray that he would come back next week and that God would be pleased to save him!
We recently moved into our new place in Erskinville. It has been stressful but God has been kind in providing at least 10 friends and family to help. We got to meet our neighbours either side. On one side is a man named Kim who has been struggling with a drug problem and is receiving subsidised rent as incentitive to keep clean. On the other side is a husband named brenden and a wife name Kate and their kids. They have asked us over for a meal wej we settle in which we hope to take them up on to start building relationships with our neighbours.
Mike has been catching up with his friend Adian Foxcroft, the youth minister at Natemburn Cammeray Anglican, as they work on doing a Catechism together aimed at helping Christians know what they believe and why they believe it. Mike is very passionate about it and hopes their time working on it will be fruitful.
We have started at our new Church St Andrews Strathfield. We ahave loved getting to know the Saints there, particularly of the university congregation called Kbf ( Korean Bible Fellowship) which began at NSW Uni under the ministry if Philip Jensen. We have loved staff training which has been on every Sunday after the Uni church. Last night Pip has a night of food, encouragement and prayer with the ministry wives. We feel very well supported!
Pip has started up her first subjects of the diploma of Bible and missions at Moore Theological College - New Testament and and Christian apolagetics. Please pray that she would be able to handle the academic side of college as she is a bit anxious about it, and also that she would be able to serve the college community well on Tuesdays as she spends the day studying and getting to know women at college better.
Mike, who is on the Orientation Commiittee, was able to welcome the first years at the big day in and during their Greek intensives. We also loved going to the Prascilla and Aquilla conference at Moore College at the start of the year with our friend Katie Barratt. Thankful we get to sit under such helpful teaching on 1 Corinthians 11-14 on how to do complementarian ministry well as men and women as God has designed us to be - mike was reminded that the re-established order of the roles of men and women in marriage and in church is the best relational expression of the glory of God and when we fail to do this we bring shame upon ourselves. Pray pip and I can reflect this in our marriage at at church.
Mike has also been running the walk up team at college with a friend Tim Flint. He ran a training session to which he invited represtatives from UTS, Sydney uni and St Stephens Newtown so that we can partner well with them. So far there has been amazing excitement and involvement in doing walk up in those places. Pip and Mike took our neighbour out for a coffee on Tuesday. He was homeless for like 28 years and is now on a pension and on a program where someone else pays most of his rent for him if he stays clean.... He was reluctant to come out but when he did he really opened up. He had some people throw him off a train when he was 30 and he cracked his skull open. He said he survived because someone was looking over him. I got to tell him that I Pip and i viewed ourselves as needy sinners like him and that I believe God is Sovereign over all people and that he has preserved his life till this day and everyone elses lives for the purpose of hearing the gospel so that many might come into a relationship with him through his Son Jesus Christ. Mike asked people at college to pray for him that he would get to know the gospel better and get connected to a local church. A few days later two people from college doing walk begain to answer Mikes prayers as they pumped into him and shared the gospel with him! How amazing is that. Please pray that he would be convicted of the truth of the gospel and would get involved in the local church.
Mike has also been running training at church for walk up. After running evangelism training for the last three weeks, 14 of us went out from our church, St Andrews Strathfield, to do door knocking and walk up today. A girl and a guy (who had never done walk up before) from church had a chat for an hour or so with a guy called Yougin who they invited to church. HE CAME!!!!! It was his first time at church and his first time hearing the gospel!!! He was warmly welcomed and came out after church with us for dinner and kept the night alive by going to another place for dessert! I got to have a good chat with him over dinner about the gospel after which he was able to articulate that "we don't get to heaven through doing good works but through a relationship with Jesus." Next week were watching a movie with him and having lunch after which he said he would like to come back to church! Praise God for the boldness of the guys here at St Andrews and for the power of the gospel. Please pray that he would come back next week and that God would be pleased to save him!
Thanks for your prayers!!
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